The summer has passed long ago, but Dr. Christiane Haupt still works night and day. She is preparing feathers for the shifting procedure to get the remaining swifts back into the air.

Shifting is a technique to repair (better: replace) damages flight feathers and rectrices. It has already been known in medieval ages, when it was applied to falcons. In his book "De arte venandi cum avibus" (The Art of Hunting with Birds, published around 1240), Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen describes that using trained falcons for hunting was popular in the aristocratic society, and that these birds were rare and precious. He took much of his knowledge from Arab Falconer Moamin's textbook "De scientia venandi per aves".

The material, carbon fibers and superglue, has changed, but the basic procedure of shifting remained the same: A dead fellow gives his good feathers. Each feather is individually prepared to fit the receipient. When the required set of feathers is complete, it is implanted in a 2-3 hrs. surgery, using general anesthesia.

This complex and time consuming task requires sophistication, in-dept knowledge, highest precision and a lot of experience, because swifts spend almost all their life flying. The implanted feathers have to resist this permanent impact until they are molted and must fit precisely to avoid aerodynamic disability. Additionally, swifts often need a complete set of feathers, because their own ones are crippled due to malnutrition or damaged for other reasons. The medieval prototype refers to replacing a single, broken falcon feather, so there is not only a difference in feather size, but also in the number.

In total and with an expert's routine, shifting one swift takes up to 8 hrs. For the upcoming third transfer to Fuertevenura, Dr. Haupt prepared and implanted 13 sets of feathers.

After shifting and regenerating from anesthesia, each shifted patient must prove itself in the clinic's training hall. Usually, the swift got used to its old broken feathers and adapted its moves to compensate. Now, the bird has to get used to the "new dress", which makes the training sessions a nail-biter for the clinic personnel: The feathers must not be damaged, neither in the first bumpy flying attempts nor when the swift adapted and gains speed and altitude. Nevertheless, seeing a "problem child" flying is still an incredible moment of joy, and thanks to our sponsors, "Phoebe" from Freiburg, "Tudor" from Bucharest, and 10 fellow swifts will be transferred and set free in Fuerteventure on January, 15th.